The Crab-tree.
How pleasure ‘tis to view yon old Crab-tree!
In robes of beauty clothed each spreading bough,
And Earth was the abode of Purity.
The skills of man from the wild Crab has got 5
Varieties of Apples of choice kinds:
Would as much care had been to all men’s minds
Applied for ages; then we should not
Have cause for grief to see the human race
In the vile state so much of it appears. 10
But Virtue would increase through all the years,
And Happiness would all the world embrace.
As from the wild Crab men got the Apple-tree,
So culture would improve the whole great human family.
George Markham Tweddell
[Sonnets on Trees and Flowers, p. 63]
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